Obamamania in the air as fans descend on capital (Ottawa)

Ottawa Citizen ^ | February 18, 2009 | Louisa Taylor

[Loyalist]

It's going to be a doozy of a welcome for a very special guest who is pretty much guaranteed to be a no-show.

Bus trips have been organized in Montreal, Kitchener and Toronto. Hotel rooms are booked, Facebook groups are buzzing and websites have sprung up to give visitors all the latest information.

They're coming to wave signs on Parliament Hill -- if security allows it -- and to cheer at a church rally, where the poet Oni the Haitian Sensation will be performing. Mayor Larry O'Brien might be part of the action, though he hasn't confirmed yet, and a singer is flying in from Halifax to sing a duet with a trio of teenage sisters from Hamilton.

Then -- if security allows it -- there will be a symbolic "Yes We Span" march across the Laurier Avenue Bridge and back, just before everyone gets back on their buses and heads home.

All of this for U.S. President Barack Obama, a man one organizer says he knows his chances of seeing are "zilch."

"You know, something like two million people went to Washington for the inauguration and very few of them actually saw the president except on a video screen, but it was a historical situation and they just wanted to be present," says Ken Sherman.

The Hamilton community organizer and vice-president of Democrats Abroad is part of Canadians for Obama, the group organizing the rally at First Baptist Church tomorrow.

"The fact is that the prime minister and the Governor General are welcoming him essentially behind closed doors, and we want to match that with a public event."

When the presidential visit was first announced, organizers in several cities booked buses for the masses expected to descend on the capital to catch a glimpse of the most popular politician in the world. Then word came that it was to be a "low-key" working visit, and interest plummeted. That didn't stop a dedicated core of Obama supporters from pulling together a program that almost makes a virtue of the fact that the president will be hidden from public view. News has spread of the lively rally and the bridge walk and the late-breaking, ever-so-slight possibility of a wave from the armoured limousine as it reaches Parliament Hill, and interest has picked up again.

"Even if we don't see him, he'll see it on TV, he'll read about it, he'll know that people were out there to welcome him," says Adrienne Jones, the Toronto-based president of Democrats Abroad Canada. "Imagine if he came and no one did anything? That would not represent how we feel about him."

While cheerfully insisting he's "no Obama maniac," Kitchener businessman David de Weerdt says he booked a bus to Ottawa because he felt it was vital Canada show the new president a warm welcome in such challenging economic conditions.

"From a self-interest standpoint we need to work with the U.S.A., and there's dramatic change afoot," says Mr. De Weerdt, 47. "These are very important times and if we don't get it right, the consequences will be big."

It's not just out-of-towners showing their support. The Canadian Tulip Festival unveiled a large wooden tulip painted with the likeness of the president by Ottawa artist Jill Alexander.

ByWard Market T-shirt store Bang On reported a spike in sales of Obama prints to Ottawans and tourists alike this past week, which is saying something: the U.S. president has been their top seller for the past six months.

Orléans resident Rachel Décoste worked on Mr. Obama's campaign, screamed for joy when she saw him up close during the inaugural parade in Washington, and has been helping to organize the rally in Ottawa.

"We want to get a message to him or to his handlers that Canadians support him and we didn't let this occasion pass without marking it the way it deserves to be marked," says Ms. Décoste, 33.

"We also want to give a message to our own politicians on all levels to learn from Obama and reach out to people in ways that haven't in the past."

That's something the Canadian government has failed to notice, according to Toronto author and analyst Scott Wolfe.

"This is only partly about Obama," says Mr. Wolfe. "The bigger point is that this is also about us -- and seizing the opportunity to reflect upon Obama's example and what it means about centuries of struggle that have been overcome, and about the work we have ahead, and refusing to buy into cynical beliefs about what our governments can't do for us and start talking about what they can do for us."

Mr. Wolfe is an expert in social and public policy. Canadians for Obama invited him to the rally to present excerpts of an article he wrote earlier this month called "What President Obama might have said," which Mr. Wolfe describes as his personal effort to "imagine what Obama might have said to Canadians had he been invited to do so.

"There are millions of Canadians for whom this visit is about more than trade -- it reaches to the core of issues we are grappling with as Canadians."

A similar impulse drove the development of a symposium tonight at the University of Ottawa.

Organized by a Toronto radio station and the university's Friends of Sudan Internship Program, the symposium is bringing together panelists from the fields of politics, business, entertainment, sports and more to address the theme "Barack Obama is president. Now what? The Impact on African-Canadians."

Panelist Farley Flex, a music industry veteran probably best known as a judge on Canadian Idol, says the Obama effect has inspired many Canadians, but its impact could be fleeting without sustained effort to build on it.

"A lot of our urban centres are so highly diverse but ... the corporate boardrooms, Parliament Hill and Queen's Park are still pretty homogenous," says Mr. Flex. "You can go to any playground and see kids of all cultures playing together. We could have that same interactive nature in the boardrooms and legislative houses, but somebody has to foster that and keep it top of mind."

For the Hamilton-based Cunningham Sisters -- 14-year-old Nataiah, 15-year-old Natalie and 20-year-old Natashia -- Mr. Obama's visit is a chance to perform a song they wrote for him, called Superman.

"Obama is really smart, he's really for the people, and it's a piece of history that he is coming to Canada," says Natalie. "I won't be sad if I don't see him, I'm just happy that we're going."

- - -

Obama-related events in Ottawa

Today

Yes We Can Symposium,

6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Conference room 140, 90 University Pte.

University of Ottawa.

Free admission, for more information, call 613-261-0042.

Tomorrow

Canadians for Obama

is tentatively planning to gather near the Eternal Flame on Parliament Hill at 10 a.m. Contingent on security permission.

Canadians for Obama Rally: A Celebration of President Obama's Visit in Words and Music, 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

First Baptist Church

140 Laurier Ave. W.

For more information, www. obamainottawa.webs.com.

'Yes We Span' -- Bridge Walk for Obama, 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. A walk from First Baptist Church to the Laurier Avenue Bridge to symbolize the way President Obama bridges cultures, generations and countries. Bridge Walks for Obama have taken place in more than 70 countries around the world.

For more information, call toll free 877-336-2008 or check www.democratsabroad.org

- - -

Online

News and commentary from Obama's Ottawa visit.

Join Citizen reporters in liveblogging the day. Follow along and join the discussion either on the site or by Twittering your thoughts and comments using the #obamawa hashtag.

Send your photos to us and we'll share them with everybody else.

ottawacitizen.com

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[Loyalist]

The same people who would turn out to protest any other U.S. President--even Clinton--are now making a pilgrimage just to catch a glimpse of That One's radiant being.

This fact disturbs me more than anything.

On the other hand, there are many Canadians who would happily have put together a "Canadians Against Obama" demonstration, except that they're all too busy working during the week.

For the Hamilton-based Cunningham Sisters -- 14-year-old Nataiah, 15-year-old Natalie and 20-year-old Natashia -- Mr. Obama's visit is a chance to perform a song they wrote for him, called Superman.

You sing hymns to God, not to another man.

Bridge Walks for Obama have taken place in more than 70 countries around the world.

If only.

[bergmeid]

It also means that he’s finding another way to take another trip on that fancy airplane. Anything is better than having to sit in that boring Oval Office and doing some actual work.

[autumnraine]

And we are the only people who find this disturbing?

[Prince of Space]

He’s in Phoenix right now....and I’m hoping to make it over to protest him (I work the graveyard shift currently so we’ll see if I can last that long!).

[stevecmd]

And we are the only people who find this disturbing?

YES!

[LibLieSlayer]

Keep him... no really... we insist!

LLS

[Marathoner]

There are an incredible number of idiots, fools and lemmings in the world.

Obviously, and you know, I wasn't really thinking the Big O could be the Antichrist, but stories like this make you wonder.

[maica]

This kind of mania is very disturbing.
No man’s actions can satisfy such a huge segment of the world’s population as the apparent segment who consider Obama to be some kind of saviour.

Just as President Bush’s negatives were high because both leftists and conservatives were not pleased with his actions,so the negatives will rise for Obama.

He will not be able to provide what all of these people are fantasizing about. And they will get angry.

It may get very ugly in the next few years.

[kenth]

The wife and I had always wondered the same thing. Now we know that it’s rather easy. Some have called Obama the anti-Christ. We both disagree, but think he’s test run to see if people are ready again.

[Venturer]

Who is in charge of bringing the Palm Fronds for the Messiah to walk on.?

[fanfan]

Barf alert.

[Pippin]

Oi!

[Niuhuru]

No, but we’re the only ones who have the guts to voice our concern.

[Niuhuru]

Now that Israel is created, there’s nothing on this Earth of Heaven that will destroy it. Hell can send as many as Satan likes, but it won’t happen.

After all, if AntiChrist and the False Prophet can’t do it, what chances do these militants have? They’re mere specks compared to His Angels guarding it.

[Niuhuru]

So many of these stupid fools sincerely believe that Lucifer will make his son share anything with them.

[Squawk 8888]

Anything is better than having to sit in that boring Oval Office and doing some actual work.

As far as the rest of the world goes, the less actual work he does the better off we are.